Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Bergeron’s appointment ‘under review’
Ron Bergeron signed a $25 million no-bid construction contract with the South Florida Water Management District more than a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped him for the district’s board.
Bergeron signed the contract calling for Bergeron Land Development Inc. to complete the district’s work on a stormwater treatment area in western Martin County on Feb. 6.
DeSantis said he “would like to appoint” Bergeron, a western Broward County developer and former member of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission from 2007 to 2017, to the district board during a Jan. 29 ceremony in Fort Lauderdale.
But as of Tuesday afternoon, Bergeron’s picture was not among the other DeSantis ap-
pointees on the district website.
Bergeron’s appointment is still “under review” to determine whether he “has any conflict of interest that might impede the work he would need to do” on the board, DeSantis spokeswoman Helen Ferre said late Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s obviously a very successful businessman, he wants everything to be transparent, so he has insisted on conducting a conflict review with his attorneys, and that’s fine,” DeSantis said of Bergeron at the Jan. 29 announcement. “As soon as that’s done — I don’t think there’s going to be any issue — this Broward seat is open and I will sign the order to put him on.”
What’s Next
The Florida Ethics Commission may have the final say whether “Alligator Ron” Bergeron can be a member of the South Florida Water Management District board despite signing the $25 million construction contract with the district.
DeSantis and Bergeron “agree that it is appropriate to review conflicts of interests and to sit in front of the Ethics Commission in April to answer any and all questions they may have,” Helen Aguirre Ferre, the governor’s communications director, said via email Wednesday. “This is a completely transparent process.”
DeSantis announced plans Jan. 29 to appoint Bergeron to the SFWMD board pending what the governor’s office is calling “an ethics and conflict of interest review.”
As that review progressed, Bergeron may have created a conflict of interest by signing the contract Feb. 6 with the district to have his company, Bergeron Land Development Inc., complete construction of a water cleaning facility in western Martin County.
Governing board members are volunteers appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Florida Senate. They generally serve four-year terms.
State law prohibits public officers, including SFWMD board members, from doing business with their own agencies but does not “prohibit contracts entered into prior to ... appointment to public office.”
Bergeron “has not been appointed to the SFWMD board,” Ferre said.
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Palm City Republican who has criticized the district’s former board members for a lack of transparency and has helped DeSantis choose new board members, “is hopeful” the conflict of interest review will address Bergeron’s new contract “and believes that it will,” said Brad Stewart, the congressman’s deputy chief of staff.
No bidding
The new contract calls for Bergeron’s company to finish the district’s work on the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area near Indiantown.
Bergeron’s company was the second-lowest bidder when the district sought bids for the original project in 2014. The lowest bidder, Blue Goose Construction of Fort Pierce, got the $100.8 million contract from the district to build the project’s 6,300-acre stormwater treatment area.
The district fired Blue Goose in November, claiming the firm was working too slowly to finish by the the scheduled 2021 completion date.
According to state law, a bidding process is not required on contracts to finish projects when the original contractor was fired.
“The bidding process usually calls for the second bidder to be approached to complete the project should the first bidder not be able to do so,” Ferre said in an email reply to TCPalm’s questions.
Bergeron was contacted in November to consider the project, Ferre said. “It did not arise from his possible appointment to the SFWMD board.”
Prior contract: $79 million
Bergeron’s company also had a $79 million contract with the district to expand Stormwater Treatment Area 1 West in western Palm Beach County, a project designed to clean water heading into the Arthur A. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and the Everglades.
The contract was signed Nov. 19, 2015, and the project was completed in January.
Work included excavating over 3.2 million cubic yards of farmland and building levees on the 4,600-acre project.
The C-44 STA and the STA 1 West expansion are Bergeron’s only contracts with the district, according to district spokesman Randy Smith, who said he searched back to 2009.
Bergeron is founder and CEO of the Bergeron Family of Companies, a business that includes interests in farming, road building, real estate development, waste management and disaster recovery. He did not return phone calls to his office Monday and Tuesday or reply to questions emailed, at his staff ’s request, Monday.
Brand new board
On Jan. 10, DeSantis asked all the district’s board members to resign.
All of the district’s board members appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott have resigned or had their terms expire. All of the board members at the March 14 meeting will be DeSantis appointees.
“I know Mr. Bergeron has been going to great lengths to make sure he has no conflicts,” said Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, appointed Feb. 21 by DeSantis to represent Martin and St. Lucie counties on the board. “If this is a conflict of interest, I hope he does the right thing.”
Thurlow-Lippisch declined further comment “until I know where things stand.”
Bergeron did not return a phone call or reply to questions emailed to his office.
Wide-ranging business
Bergeron is founder and CEO of the Bergeron Family of Companies, a business that includes interests in farming, road building, real estate development, waste management and disaster recovery.
DeSantis said he chose Bergeron to help lead the district because of his experience working with state and federal officials on environmental issues.
That same day, Bergeron said he plans to do a thorough review of Everglades projects built since 2000 to make sure they’ve been constructed properly.
“If we can send someone to the moon in a rocket ship, we ought to be able to save our planet,” Bergeron said.
Bergeron’s company built some of those projects, including the $79 million expansion of Stormwater Treatment Area 1 West designed to clean water heading into the Arthur A. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and the Everglades completed in January.
TCPalm has requested copies of all the contracts between the district and Bergeron’s companies.
Water-cleaning project
The C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area is a massive state-andfederal project designed to store and clean water before it reaches the St. Lucie River.
The district had awarded Blue Goose Construction a $100 million contract to build the project’s 6,300-acre stormwater treatment area — basically a massive man-made marsh to clean water — in September 2004. The Army Corps of Engineers is charged with building the project’s reservoir.
The district fired fired Blue Goose on Nov. 7, alleging the Fort Pierce company fell behind schedule on the project, slated to be completed in 2021.
Blue Goose has sued the district, alleging wrongful termination.
The district estimates completing the project would cost about $25 million, the amount of the contract with Bergeron’s company.